10 Things You Need To Know This Morning

The hitchBOT next to
Highway 17 north of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, and a portion of
the Trans-Canada Highway on Tuesday. The hitch-hiking robot is
now at the halfway point in its journey across
Canada.REUTERS/Kenneth
Armstrong

1. Russia Bans Food Imports From The
West. Specifically from the U.S., EU, Canada, and Australia.
More measures may be coming: Russia confirmed flight-path
restrictions and sanctions targeting the Western industrial
sector were also on the table, the FT reports. The retaliatory
measures against Western sanctions come at a bad time for Europe,
which is seeing flagging growth across the board ...

2. German Industrial Production Retreats.
The latest reading came in at -0.5%, well short of expectations
for a gain 0f 0.3%. It is the first year-over-year decline since
last July, and it follows Wednesday's terrible factory orders
report of -3.2%. "June's year-over-year reading confirms the
German industry is decelerating from a 5% annual growth peak
reached in January," Bloomberg's Maxime Sbaihi and Niraj Shah
said in a piece titled "No End in Sight for the German Industrial
Slowdown." "[T]he pace deceleration is worrying with the crisis
in Ukraine adding further weakness," Pantheon Macroeconomics'
Claus Vistesen said.

3. 'Panic-Selling' In London Real
Estate. The Telegraph
says homeowners have begun dumping properties over fears they
are running out of time to cash in on the huge run-up in prices.
As BI's Jim Edwards points out, real estate agent chain
Savills recently reported strong indications the London market
was topping out.

London average property values: flat.

London volume of exchanges: up 9%.

Outside London average property values: up 9%.

Outside London volume of exchanges: up 20%.

4. Draghi. ECB rate decision hits at 7:45
a.m. Eastern; the press conference at 8:30 a.m. "No changes
are expected but [Draghi's] monthly press
conference will be used to grill
[him] on last week’s poor
Eurozone inflation readings, the
aforementioned weak data and likely the
impact of the standoff with Russia," Accendo Markets' Michael van
Dulken wrote in a note.

6. Fox Surges. Shares in Rupert
Murdoch's holding company were up 4.3% Thursday morning before
the bell after the company reported strong profits Wednesday
afternoon. On the company's earnings conference call,
Murdoch called the company's decision to walk away from the Time
Warner deal its "resolute" decision,
BI's Myles Udland said.